Nethserver - How do you backup and RESTORE

@schulzstefan

Good Morning Stefan

A good decision, I don’t think you’ll ever regret it!

How much cores / sockets does that HP server have? As you know, with HP you almost always had several options on CPU…

As your has only 32 GB RAM, but a built in RAID Controller, I’d keep the HP RAID as is (RAID1=mirror).

I’d also suggest using XFS, with this setup you’ll get the best performance from the Filesystem.

The Modem is no problem, on Proxmox hardware passthru like USB or Serial Ports and harddisks is very reliable!
Even Grafik card passthru seems to work very stably, as I hear from my friends, but I myself do not use that.

At home I’m using a VM as Home Assistant, and have an Aeotec zWave USB card plugged in to my Proxmox…

here’s the serial port (eg for passthru…)

I’m assuming your server still has a COM-Port? (At least via PCI or USB…).

16 GB RAM is a very powerful NethServer. If possible, I’d allocate 4 or even 8 cores.

Rule of Thumb (Faustregel):

If running one or more VMs on Proxmox (Or ANY Hypervisor) never allocate all cores to one VM!

Example: If Proxmox shows your CPU with 12 cores (including Hyperthreading), only allocate 4-8 cores.

This way, no single VM can “block” the entire Proxmox, even if it is hanging with overloaded CPUs… You still can take control!

Give me some info about the CPUs, and I’ll give you some feedback. :slight_smile:

My 2 cents
Andy

O.k. got this.

I have a full data-backup (duplicity) of the production server on USB. I’d like to restore this in a NS VM which I already have in proxmox. How can this be achieved? This is because the real server has to be re-configured for proxmox…

You’ld need to install a fresh NS if already configured, but that’s fast in Proxmox.
Then restore the backup to that freshly installed server. The GUI installer actually asks you for this after installation (Web-GUI).

Yes, I remeber. Unfortunately I’m over this step. O.k. I’ll start again…

@schulzstefan

Best start with the habit of making a backup in Proxmox everytime a “milestone” is reached…
After all, that’s one of the major time savers Proxmox has to offer!
But you need to get into the habit of it first!

A milestone would be:
Installed, but not configured (Saves ca. 20 minutes everytime you need a fresh NS!)
Transfer/Restore accomplished, before reboot (And one AFTER the reboot, when everything works).
But I think you get the idea… :slight_smile:

When setting up Proxmox, when you get to the point where you can choose XFS, you can also set how you would like your disks split up.

If you do not define anything. Proxmox will set “local” to 100 GB, and the Rest will be “local-lvm”.
If you prefer a larger “local”, for example 300 GB, then set in 300 in the box below the XFS choice dropdown.

local can be used for ISOs, ContainerTemplates and VZDumpBackups.
local-lvm is so called “Thin provisioned” and is suitable for VMs and Containers.

I’d keep the NS as small as possible, enlargening if needed takes less than 5 Minutes!
This saves you a lot of Backup Time.

Rule of Thumb:
OS & Data on disk is between 60-70% of total disk. Over 75-80% makes things a bit slower, so not optimal. To much free space wastes times for backups…

During installation WHERE is the tab to restore from backup? Can’t find it…

It’s shown AFTER the installation, after the first reboot, when you log in via Browser to configure the server…

Didn’t catch this up… Next time will close and restart firefox…

Are you with the old or with the new server-manager?

Mostly, I used the old Servermanager during first setup, but I’m not sure as the 7.9 version does not come with ServerManager (Has to be installed afterwards from software center). but the new server manager should also offer an option for restore…

Sorry, after fresh install nothing shows up where I could a restore select???

Do I have to install the backup-restore module?

I think so…

(Remember, since using Proxmox 5 years now, I haven’t had to rely on NethServer Backups…)
I still do them, I’ve tested a restore once in a while, but never a full restore for disaster recovery…

My bad… :frowning:

No, no… not your bad. But as a newbie to nethserver I’m not really happy with backup/restore/move to new hardware.

Do you already have a plan (at least a mental picture) how you’re going to do your proxmox backups?

First step first. First step is to get the real server done in the vm. And then I’ll configure the HP with proxmox. After that I’ll install NS. Probably from backup again… But as long the first step is not taken, I’m still struggling.

cross the bridge when you’re there…

Another Option to migrate a NS Server P2V is a new installation, then using rsync to sync almost all folders, and /etc needs special treatment.

I have done this in the past about 4-5 times. There was something corrupt in the system, and this “fixed” it.

I’m not able to restore the real server to a VM. Too much errors. Maybe it’s because of the AD, I don’t know. At least I would expect that backup and MORE IMPORTANT RESTORE work out of the box for a server distro. Has anybody any experiance with clonezilla transferring real hardware to vm?

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